Scum Domain Squatter Misusing Candlepower Name.

Some junk link page has popped up at:

http://www.candlepowerforum.com/

It is an obvious attempt to mislead people who are looking for the real Candlepower forums. It even looks like someone (something?) glanced at the real CPF site to scrape up some key words. It is a flashing neon hell of pop up and unders. It is owned by something called "laporteholdings.com". the laporte website suggests that they rather expect aggrieved domain holders to be looking for them. http://laporteholdings.com/

These pages suggest that Laporte makes its living by typosquatting:

http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/decisions/html/2005/d2005-0240.html

http://www.arb-forum.com/domains/decisions/473826.htm

http://www.upallnightgaming.com/blogs/nitrox/archive/category/1007.aspx

This page suggests he opens with a demand of $500 per name and is quite good at dodging registered letters and process servers:

http://tinyurl.com/e4eso

Edit: Link shortened to stop horizontal scrolling - Empath

Re: Scum Domain Squatter Misusing Candlepower Name

Just of the heck of it... I used Firefox to try the site. No pop-ups or unders, no flashes, etc. Typical domain typo site.

-Bill

Re: Scum Domain Squatter Misusing Candlepower Name

And they DO direct you to some light sellers and case makers. So not a total loss, but I know what you mean by scum. Most of the crap there is crap indeed.

Cameron

Re: Scum Domain Squatter Misusing Candlepower Name

There is no way for anyone to register every possible domain. Now that there are several dozen top level domains (TLDs), it's not even feasable to get the same somain in all the top level domains.

I did not see anything nefarious in that page. It sure did not look like CPF. While I hope they go broke registering all those names, the rules were relaxed to allow that to happen.

If you wanted to be pedantic, you could even assert that our favorite forum should end in .org instead of .com. It is not, after all, a business venture. Well, that's what I think Sasha said.


Daniel

Re: Scum Domain Squatter Misusing Candlepower Name

those pages make money when visitors click on the links.

Re: Scum Domain Squatter Misusing Candlepower Name

Domain squatters also have www.ledmuseum.com so it isn't just CPF that's affected. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jpshakehead.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jpshakehead.gif

Re: Scum Domain Squatter Misusing Candlepower Name

I just found that candlepowerforums.org is actually available...

Re: Scum Domain Squatter Misusing Candlepower Name

[ QUOTE ]
The_LED_Museum said:
Domain squatters also have www.ledmuseum.com so it isn't just CPF that's affected. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jpshakehead.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jpshakehead.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Is ledmuseum a business? If not, a .ORG may be more appropriate.

Take sollace in the fact that the companies that squat on domain names have to pay a yearly fee for each of these domains.

The part that makes me upset is when the domain registration expires and the domain registrars 'reserve' it for the squatters for months. The domain will not resolve but you can not apply for it either. There is nowhere to apeal that practice.

Daniel

Re: Scum Domain Squatter Misusing Candlepower Name

[ QUOTE ]
gadget_lover said:
[ QUOTE ]
The_LED_Museum said:
Domain squatters also have www.ledmuseum.com so it isn't just CPF that's affected. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jpshakehead.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jpshakehead.gif

[/ QUOTE ]
Is ledmuseum a business? If not, a .ORG may be more appropriate.

[/ QUOTE ]
My website is just a hobbyist website about LEDs, lasers, flashlights, and other things that glow.
It is not a business.
I have the .org TLD courtesy of somebody in the UK; I only mentioned the .com squatter because of just that: some douchebag (or enemabag) is squatting www.ledmuseum.com and it would cost $10,000.00 to get that domain name from them. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif

Re: Scum Domain Squatter Misusing Candlepower Name

Greg, I feel for you, but the scumbag is not using the domain name to compete, and you have a usable domain name, so there's nothing to feel bad about.

It is kind of neat how the domain squatters do look at other domains for keywords that they can use in an auto-generated page of links.

I wanted heyu.com for some software I made, but found it was in use and settled for heyu.org. No problem, since the search engines found it pretty quick. Judging from the hits it gets every day, there's no problem with people finding it.

If we still had only the original handful of TLDs, it would be a problem that the squatter has ledmuseum.com. As it is, you have taken care of the problem. So don't sweat it and rejoice in the fact that they are paying a registrar 15 to 30 dollars a year for a product you (the only possible customer) will never buy.


Daniel